The Hemphill ISD school board unanimously approved the formation of a new club at the last school board meeting. It is the new Hemphill Hornet Bass Club. High School biology teacher, Karen Bennett, is heading up the new club with help from Nicole Corley, a junior high history teacher. Ms. Bennett formerly fished the Lady Bass and Bass N' Gals fishing trails as well as local club tournaments. Mrs. Corley has also fished tournaments with her husband, Terence Corley, who is president of the local Hemphill Bass Club. Will Reeder, a former college fishing coach, will also be helping the club out along with Jeff Manous, a parent, avid fisherman, and former Bass-n-Bucks tournament organizer. Jeff Manous and Terence Corley will be the club's tournament directors. The Hemphill Hornet Bass Club will be affiliated with The Bass Federation-Student Angler Federation (TBF-SAF). TBF is a grassroots organization that handles high school state tournaments, the World Finals, as well as other tournaments. They feed into FLW Outdoors which is the National Organization in which Wal-mart is the major sponsor. The Student Angler Federation (SAF) is the High School division of TBF and is centered around education and the values and opportunities created by the sport of fishing. There are more than 40 SAF organizations just in the state of Texas. It is required that all of the club members join TBF-SAF to receive the benefits of liability insurance, membership to FLW Outdoors, the FLW magazine, the required educational workbook and free tournament entry fees for all TBF tournaments. The students will receive a video and educational workbook with nine practical lessons with applications to bass fishing using math, technology, engineering, and most of all the science behind bass behavior and bass fishing techniques.

Signups ended on Friday, March 7th. The response was overwhelming. Forty-Four students from grades 7th-12th signed up! Ms. Bennett wants the club members to have fun and to get all of the students into boats and begin enjoying the sport of fishing. Many of the club members are seasoned fishermen, but we have some that have never fished before. The members will fish in teams of two with a Boat Captain/Coach to run the boat. The Coach can fish, but their fish cannot count for the team. They must immediately release their fish. The coach is there to teach the students how to use technology, like reading the graphs, fishing techniques, like casting and proper lure presentations, the science behind bass behavior and why they react and bite certain baits, and how to read lake and weather conditions.

" We are going to start out with local club tournaments with our 22 teams fishing against each other, mainly for practice and fun competition. Only a handful of our members have ever fished a tournament. We want to provide them tournament experience. We will offer a small payout and/or donated fishing tackle as rewards for 1st -3rd place and Big Bass. The teams will pay $20.00 to go into the payout pot. Our first inaugural tournament is this Saturday out of Indian Mounds. It is going to be an exciting day for all persons involved. Everyone is invited to come out and support these kids. The weigh-in will be at the boat ramp at 3:00pm. " stated Ms. Bennett.

If you own a boat and would like to be the "Coach" for a team of students, please give Ms. Bennett a call at 936-275-8231. The next tournament will be April 19th out of Holly Park Marina. There won't be one in May due to all of the school activities going on each weekend. On June 14th , the tournament will be out of Lowes Creek Marina and the final tournament of the season will be on July 12th out of Fin-N-Feather.

The club will begin a new season in August as the new school year begins. They plan to have more tournaments and give the opportunity for teams to move up to fishing in bigger tournaments put on by other clubs and the TBF-SAF organization. The payout of these tournaments is mostly in scholarships. State championship tournaments offer over $5000.00 in scholarships and the World Finals offer more than $40,000 in scholarships to the college of your choice. Some colleges offer Fishing Scholarships. Hemphill students now have a chance for these offerings.

The club will not be receiving any financial support from the school, so they are asking for sponsors and monetary or tackle and other fishing-related donations for the club. If you would like to donate or sponsor the club, please call Ms. Bennett at 936-275-8231 or mail in your donation to Rt. 5 Box 5930 Hemphill, Texas. The club is non-profit and has a Tax ID number for donations. You will be mailed a receipt upon request. Sponsors who contribute $500.00 or more will be put on the Club banner, promotional materials, and the team fishing shirts.